The Vital Force Archive

Darlene Benton, who learned T'ai Chi Chih largely from Carmen Brocklehurst's YouTube videos, finally visited the Albuquerque center, toured Justin Stone's artwork and books with Guy and Carmen, and bought his "Joy" notecards.

Darlene Benton, newly accredited after years of teaching qigong and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, filled her first classes with massage therapy clients aged 18 to 80 who kept returning and brought friends.

Mary Karpin recounts the in-person 50th teacher conference and Sandy McAlister's closing charge, suggesting ways to spread TCC: sharing newsletters and the Vital Force, and demonstrating movements for mothers at the playground.

Diana Bahn opens with a short poem, then recounts returning to a live event at the 50th anniversary conference in Albuquerque after years of laying low and being of service while her teacher Carolyn Perkins and husband Michael weathered obstacles through COVID.

Rosemarie Berezin signed up at the Clarkstown Community Learning Center thinking T'ai Chi Chih was formal T'ai Chi, and found in Oreann's class a practice that feels like floating in the Caribbean.

Kathy Plachy describes a year in Oreann's class at the Clarkstown Community Learning Center, where slow repetitive movement eased her arthritic hands and steadied her enough to enjoy a steep rocky trail without fear.

Joyce Kanyuk credits her teacher Oreann with bringing students into peace and calm, and describes looking forward to the camaraderie of Monday morning class and feeling the energy of the movements; Pyramid Poems by Johnnie Lee Marquez follow.

Sr. Karen Kaelin's notes from three 2021 conference presentations: Carmen Brocklehurst on using breath to connect with the t'an t'ien, Jungmin Lee's tea ceremony, and a panel on reaching under-served communities.

Diana Bahn recounts covering her teacher Carolyn Perkins's classes the day Perkins broke her neck in February 2020, and how insurance denying a rehab bed kept her out of a COVID-struck hospital.

Oreann Kempadoo recounts becoming accredited in 2015 and struggling to introduce TCC in Rockland County until an adult learning center called, followed by testimonials from students including a woman recovering from a head injury and C-spine surgeries.

Diana Bahn uses her own home renovation and the stress of the unknown to describe Seijaku, serenity in the midst of activity, as a grounding internal practice for complicated times.

Diana Bahn describes teaching Rocking Motion to chemotherapy patients with foot neuropathy at a Mt. Sinai cancer center, using Realization Process methods to locate the heel centers and Kidney 1 points.

Diana Bahn's poem carries the sense of ground into a canoe trip, paddling across lake water, portaging over rock, and passing painted Indian glyphs before turning back city bound.

Jim Campbell's poem credits Sister Antonia with lifting the heaviness from his shoulders, her laser pointer scribing a message across the sky: flow your Chi, letting go from your core.

Sky Young-Wick recounts times her intuition proved right: a forgotten item at the door, a pre-cancerous warning she sensed at her physical, choosing Ithaca, and adopting Roxy from a rescue listing.

Sky Young-Wick's Prajna column prints the lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane's "On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever)," with its glow of your being that outshines every star.

Neena Mitchell had been teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih to seniors in Camillus just in case, then ruptured a kneecap muscle and used mental TCC in the MRI chamber and seated practice through surgery and recovery.

Diana Bahn writes about her sister-in-law Sarah's suicide, the scorched-field grief that followed, and how returning to the t'an t'ien and Justin's prajna led her to teach at a Mount Sinai cancer center.

Diana Bahn recounts climbing onto a ledge in the Columbus Circle subway to free a trapped pigeon, and how the rescue loosened her struggle with teaching "Bird Flaps Its Wings."

Diana Bahn links Justin Stone's Lotus Sutra quotation, William Penn's Quaker founding of Philadelphia, the LOVE icon's hidden yin/yang and the cracked Liberty Bell to the 2018 conference theme, with nine reasons to attend.

Diana Bahn recounts hiking to Bear Lake after the Boulder conference, meeting KG and Lisa Otero, and sitting by the Big Thompson River imagining her stress carried off to the sea.

Sr. Agnes Fleming, certified since 1992, recounts teaching in retreat houses, stepping back after cancer, and keeping a daily practice at her east-facing convent window with the dawn and birdsong.

Oreann Kempadoo traces her path from a hospital magazine course listing in 2012 to accreditation in April 2015, when presenting before a supportive audience released a lifelong shyness.

Oreann Kempadoo describes her April 19, 2015 accreditation as a rebirth, including the new name Blossom given to her by Tony and the family of friendships she found.

Diana Bahn recalls years of frustration with Carry the Ball to the Side before an afternoon of Seijaku with Dan Pienciak left her standing wordlessly in the soles of her feet.

Diana Bahn left her family, ailing friend and cat to attend the conference, where a Japanese tea ceremony and a sea turtle labyrinth both echoed her husband's own morning tea and pool rituals.

Sr. Agnes Fleming writes on Justin Stone's first anniversary about her near-daily morning practice, the yin-yang power that steadies her anxious temperament, and leading modified movements twice weekly for elderly sisters.

Diana Bahn describes, in the third person, her long-running free class at an assisted living facility, where canes, faded memories and old injuries wore down her early hopes until she found commonality with her elderly students.

Diana Bahn, a New York City teacher, takes a student's talk of American homogenization after a Florida beach trip as reason to be grateful that no two practitioners, or sessions, ever move alike.

Kompalya Thunderbird recounts learning the nineteen movements and one pose with Neena Mitchell, and how a first six-week course replaced constant worry with peace, harmony and clarity beyond years of yoga.